Are Tachyons Real or Just a Theoretical Concept Compared to Photons?

In summary, the tachyon and photon debate revolves around the possibility of particles traveling faster than the speed of light. While photons are known to travel at the speed of light, tachyons are theoretical particles that may have the ability to surpass this limit. Scientists are still exploring the implications and challenges of these faster-than-light particles, and the debate continues to spark curiosity and controversy in the scientific community.
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agentundercover99
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TL;DR Summary
Im trying to discover if Photons prove Tachyons existence
A tachyon or tachyonic particle is a hypothetical particle that always travels faster than light. Most physicists believe that faster-than-light particles cannot exist because they are not consistent with the known laws of physics. - Tachyon definition
The photon is a type of elementary particle... The invariant mass of the photon is zero; it always moves at the speed of light in a vacuum.
To summarise that, basically a Tachyon is a theoretical particle that always travels faster than light, and a Photon is an existing particle that always moves at the speed of light
Are photons not proof that tachyons exist?
 
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agentundercover99 said:
Are photons not proof that tachyons exist?
They are not. We have very convincing theories, based on enormous amounts of solid experimental evidence and consistent mathematical arguments, that there can be things with rest mass that move at less than the speed of light and things with zero rest mass that move at the speed of light but not things that move faster than the speed of light.

The existence of photons suggest that these theories are correct.
 
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agentundercover99 said:
Are photons not proof that tachyons exist?

No. Why would they be?
 
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agentundercover99 said:
Summary:: I am trying to discover if Photons prove Tachyons existence

A tachyon or tachyonic particle is a hypothetical particle that always travels faster than light. Most physicists believe that faster-than-light particles cannot exist because they are not consistent with the known laws of physics. - Tachyon definition
The photon is a type of elementary particle... The invariant mass of the photon is zero; it always moves at the speed of light in a vacuum.
To summarise that, basically a Tachyon is a theoretical particle that always travels faster than light, and a Photon is an existing particle that always moves at the speed of light
Are photons not proof that tachyons exist?

Your sense of logic is extremely faulty here. You are saying that

A = B,

and thus, C must exist, without showing a direct consequence or connection between the two.

Is this sensible to you?

If it is, then you must be a politician.

Zz.
 
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  • #6
agentundercover99 said:
... faster-than-light particles cannot exist because they are not consistent with the known laws of physics. -
If I'm not mistaken, they're not inconsistent with the laws of physics either.

Relativity states that no (positive) mass can reach the speed of light from less than c. It also says no ftl particle can slow down to c from ftl. But it doesn't rule out ftl particles.
 
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ZapperZ said:
If it is, then you must be a politician.
Even arguments by politicians seem to make sense at first, if one thinks superficially. But the argument presented here makes absolutely no sense at all. o_O
 
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Right, if my car can go 100 mph then that proves that there is a tachycar that can go 101 mph. QED :rolleyes:
 
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